Overloaded junior doctors revolt over hospital working conditions

Filed in: News » 2008 » 11 » Overloaded Junior Doctors Revo »

Website: http://www.theage.com.au/national/overloaded-junior-doctors-revolt-over-hospital-working-conditions-20081030-5eom.html

Posted by Nick Miller | Date posted: 01.11.08

This article highlights the issues facing young doctors in public hospitals in Victoria:

AMA Victoria president of the doctors in training subdivision, Steven Moylan, said his colleagues were trying to highlight the frustration growing inside public hospitals.

"There is increasing stress on staff to use limited resources to get the same result," he said. "They work longer hours and don't get paid for them. Often people work all day and on to the evening without sitting down for lunch or even a break."

He said stressed and sick doctors would inevitably lead to a decline in the quality of care.

Dr Sarah Mansfield, an intern at the Northern, said the action of doctors was partly a result of a growing, statewide feeling among junior medical staff that something had to change. "Things are really reaching a crisis point," she said.

Doctors are negotiating a new enterprise bargaining agreement with the Government, but Dr Mansfield said frustration went beyond the delays in the negotiations.

"There is a running joke when someone is paged about a patient with low urine output — you realise that you haven't been to the bathroom all day yourself, you've had nothing to eat or drink because you've been too busy," she said.

 


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